Teenager Emilia, who is currently working in a shop and at a car showroom
while studying travel and tourism, agrees with her mum.

She said: “I don’t have a moral problem with having sex with strangers. I
don’t think it’s wrong for women to sell their bodies.

“I’m not promiscuous but sex isn’t a massive thing for me.

“I certainly don’t regret losing my virginity at 14.”

Convent-educated Becky told how she drifted into her line of work after
rebelling against her strict upbringing in Wales.

She says: “Mum was brought up in a very strict Welsh working class background
and ruled the house with a rod of iron.

“She never cuddled me or told me she loved me. She was quite emotionally cold.”

Growing up in such a strict environment gave Becky a strong urge to rebel. And
those feelings intensified when she was 17 and met Gary — a petty criminal
with a shaven head, fresh out of a Young Offenders’ institution. He was
everything her mum hated.

Despite her mother’s pleas for her to ditch him and go to university, Becky
was hooked.

She and Gary had an on-off relationship for ten years, and in 1989 their
daughter Abigail, now 23, was born. But the relationship remained volatile
and Becky eventually left for a women’s refuge, taking little Abi with her.

Penniless, Becky had to think of some way to earn a living. So she set up
Scrubbers, a topless carwashing business in Milton Keynes, Bucks, where she
still lives.

She recalled: “It was hilarious. We were in stockings and suspenders
running round topless. The council went mad.”

Later, she acted as the driver for a hard-up friend who began working for an
escort agency. Word spread and Becky ended up looking after a group of
girls.

She said: “Some would earn £1,000 a week. I had a go at prostitution myself
but I wasn’t any good at it.

Becky said: “Prostitution is a service. It’s like care work. Clients might be
disabled or widowed, it’s about making them feel special.

“Emilia has seen all that. She’s seen how it can save marriages — how a man
whose wife is fighting cancer will visit a prostitute rather than start an
affair. She’s not shocked by anything as a result.”

But she doubts whether Emilia will indeed end up as a hooker, saying her
daughter would be more suited to becoming a madam.

Becky said: “She’d be brilliant at my job. She’d make a lousy prostitute
though — she couldn’t put up with the hard graft.

“To be a good prostitute, you need the constitution of a landscape gardener.
The girls see five or six clients a day. For that hour-long appointment you
need to be on top of your game.

“The sex may only last ten minutes but for the rest of the session — the
conversation, the bathing, the massage — you need to make your client feel
like they’re the only person in the world.

“It’s like giving five or six gruelling business presentations in one day. I
don’t think Emilia could put up with that.”

Emilia admitted: “After what I’ve seen, the environment doesn’t scare me. But
I think I’d get hooked on the money.

“I love material things. I worry that I’d become addicted.”

Becky added: “Obviously I wouldn’t want Emilia to be a hooker on a street
corner.

“But I’d have no objections at all if, when she reaches 18, she decided to
become a high class escort.

“What I always remember is that every girl who worked for me was someone’s
daughter.

“It would be hugely hypocritical for me to say, ‘It’s good enough for their
daughters, but not for mine’. ”

“All young people need looking after. I want prostitutes — whether it be my
daughter, or yours — to be safe and do it properly.”

myView

By MARK WAKELING of Beyond The Streets charity

A LIFE of prostitution is inherently harmful – as I know all too well in my
role as director of Beyond The Streets, a UK charity working to end sexual
exploitation.

Any attempt to promote or glamourise it ignores the extreme harm it does to
the individuals in the profession, as well as to their families.

The sale of sex will always lead to the exploitation of the vulnerable and we
cannot let prostitution be seen as a leisure activity.

For many caught up in prostitution, there is terrible exploitation and abuse.
It should not be viewed as a desirable profession.

With the Olympics just days away, there is a focus on whether women are being
trafficked here and the exploitation which may ensue.

There are also those who suggest many women choose prostitution and see the
Games as a business opportunity.

There is uncertainty as to how many will be trafficked for the Games but we
must remember that the events are temporary and what remains is a part of
London where prostitution has destroyed lives for years. www.beyondthestreets.org.uk.